Race Relations on Campus : Stanford Students Speak

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Bunzel, a political scientist at the Stanford-based Hoover Institution, has interviewed many Stanford students for this brief, readable analysis of increased racial tension and turmoil on campus. Many white students believe equal educational opportunity has been achieved; many blacks see institutionalized racism in the content of the curriculum and in the small numbers of black faculty, which, Bunzel claims, might reflect legitimate constraints or intellectual choices. He profiles three students--a black activist who feels old stereotypes about blacks are still prevalent; a black moderate who condemns racism by people of all colors; and a white frustrated in his attempt to resolve a notorious incident in which a poster portraying Beethoven was given black features as a prank by drunken white students. Calling for a subtler understanding of racial tension and questioning academic buzzwords like ``diversity,'' this book serves as a corrective to some current rhetoric. But in invoking Martin Luther King's ideal of integration, Bunzel ( Political Passages ) ignores other factors in the racial equation: King's call for economic justice and the resurgent influence of Black Power activist Malcolm X. (May)

Booknews

Drawing on a series of in-depth interviews with 54 Stanford undergraduate students conducted during the 1988-89 academic year, as well as questionnaires completed by members of the senior class of 1989, Bunzel examines the issue of racism on campus. No index. Published by Stanford Alumni Association, Bowman Alumni House, Stanford, CA 94305. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)